MASSENA – Massena Memorial Hospital will be getting $1,246,632 in Medicare reimbursement adjustments for 2010.

Chief Financial Officer Sean M. Curtin, CPA, said the financial adjustment will provide MMH with a positive bottom line for 2011.

“To qualify for this Medicare pay adjustment, which was based on decreased Medicare discharges, we submitted extensive documentation to CMS,” said Charles F. Fahd, II, FACHE, Chief Executive Officer.

“We demonstrated a decreased number of discharges and the resulting effect on per patient discharge cost, as well as showing that the decrease was due in part to circumstances beyond the hospital’s control, due to physician departures from the community.”

MMH and its financial consultants provided documentation to CMS which included MMH’s overall staffing ratios, and confirmation that MMH adjusted its staffing in response to decreased inpatient volumes.

And MMH demonstrated its physician recruitment efforts, including recruitment contracts, to verify the hospital had maximized efforts to hire new physicians, along with the plans for the Medical Office Building to provide accommodation to potential new physicians.

The hospital also demonstrated hospital-wide cost-containing measures.

In July 2009, MMH was told of revised federal regulations on classification as a Sole Community Provider Hospitals. MMH received the federal designation in 2002. Sole Community Provider Hospitals receive enhanced Medicare reimbursement.

MMH had a reduction in its Medicare volume during 2010 compared to 2009 and was eligible to submit an appeal for payment adjustment.